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Scientists Embark Upon Hunt To Find Iron-Controlling Molecule That Will Quell Colon/Rectal Cancer; But The Molecule Already Exists

One of the dirty little secrets of modern medicine, and a reason why healthcare costs are so high, is that researchers and clinicians are trying to profiteer by inventing and delivering the highest cost medicine. Ten-cent cures are not to be found. Patentable, costly man-made medicines reign. Natural medicines are shunned or ignored.

Such is the case where British scientists claim they have discovered high iron levels in the colon/rectum raise the risk for cancer and say they are avidly searching for chelating (key-lay-ting) molecules that will mop up the iron and reduce the risk or even treat active colon/rectal cancer. They say they hope to start using these molecules in the coming years. But high-risk individuals with polyps in their colon or who have a history of bowel inflammation can reach for a cure that is already at hand.

This landmark study, published in journal Cell Reports, is stunning. While high-iron diets (particularly highly-absorbable iron from red meat) have consistently been shown to increase the risk for colon cancer, iron blood levels are not consistently correlated with this malignancy. Researchers show all the damaging effects of iron are local – in the colon and rectum.

The striking discovery is that even a high-iron diet will not induce tumors in these digestive tract tissues as long as a tumor-suppressing gene called Apc is functional. But researchers note that uncontrolled iron appears to increase mutation rates in the Apc gene that in turn inactivates its cancer-inhibiting action. Then two iron-accumulating genes (transferrin receptor 1 and divalent metal transporter 1) are switched on and iron pools in these tissues that results in the activation of a tumor-promoting gene (Wnt).

But while there are expensive and problematic iron-chelating drugs, the safest and most economical is IP6. In 2001 researchers at the Food & Drug Administration declared IP6 to be one of only four non-mutagenic iron-chelating molecules. It would be the first truly preventive cancer therapy as no preventive measures are currently practiced beyond early detection.

Expensive iron chelators, most which require intravenous administration, are not appropriate for high-risk individuals who do not have active forms of colon/rectal cancer. However, IP6 does butt heads with the Food & Drug Administration’s requirement that a dietary supplement cannot cure, treat or prevent any disease without being declared a drug.

It’s estimated that 30 to 50 percent of Americans over 50 have or will develop adenomas, but only between 1 and 10 percent of these polyps will progress to cancer in 5 to 10 years. So it would be overtreatment to prescribe oral chelators for everyone who has diagnosed intestinal polyps.

The rationale to reduce the iron load is strong. Researchers already know that depletion of stored iron via blood donation or blood-letting decreases the risk for various cancers including colon cancer.